Transformations Part One
by Aenya Phoenix
Summary: The main character follows her dreams and makes the transformations necessary to find who she is.  This is a completed Part and the second is in progress but available for your viewing pleasure. Warning:  possible "M" rating to come in later parts :
1. Hitsuzen

**It's raining today in Japan. The rain is surprisingly dull here. It's monotonous; the rain just patters down with no hint of excitement. I came here to experience some kind of… something. I thought that maybe if I could just get out of sunny So Cal, I could find something more interesting for myself. But, so far, the only thing that seems remotely worthy of my time is the thing I brought with to this new place. That's right, my manga. I'm still finding it hard to enjoy anything else but the worlds I discover in mangas.**

**I originally figured I'd be in heaven: coming to Japan, being immersed in the place where most of my treasured manga came from. The only problem is that my Japanese isn't that great yet, so I can't understand the majority of what anyone is saying, let alone any of the writing.**

**Anyways, I think I'll take a break and at least try to enjoy the wet weather.**

**Signing off,**

**Rachel**

**Last posted at: 9:09 AM**

Rachel clicked out of her blog and looked out at the gray clouds and dull sprinkle. She couldn't help wishing it would at least rain harder so it would be more interesting. Shutting off her laptop and stuffing her iPod in her pocket, she stood up from the bed mat she had been sitting on and hunted her heavy jacket out of her unpacked suitcase. She threw it on along with her beat up Converse and trudged down the stairs of the high school dorm and into the drizzle in the courtyard.

Usually Rachel liked the rain; today's light drops weren't doing it for her, though. The red-headed 16-year-old left the school grounds and started walking along the wet sidewalks of the foreign city. Her feet moved, seemingly of their own volition, down the familiar streets of previous walks. The skyscrapers and lofty apartment buildings seemed to fade into the gray of the sky and the cars in the streets were muted and slower. At least, Rachel thought, I have the freedom to walk around when I want to. Back home I doubt I would be allowed to go out into the rain like this.

She turned on her iPod and threw her hood over her head. Her feet led her down street after street through the drizzle and she hummed to the music and watched the sidewalk pass under her. Rachel found herself wandering down a small alleyway and emerged on an emptier street than she had ever seen during her week in Japan. It was still more congested than the streets on a rainy weekday in her hometown in California, but for a big Japanese city it was pretty slow.

Rachel began to realize that she didn't know where she was. The buildings she was walking next to were too tall to see around and she wasn't close enough to any street signs to read them, (not that she could anyways). She stopped walking and pulled the headphones out of her ears to get a feel of her surroundings. Her curiosity was captured as she realized what she had been walking next to.

It was a very peculiar house; a traditional Japanese-styled house sandwiched between two taller business buildings and surrounded by an old wooden fence. The fence's gate was supported by two large posts with a crescent moon resting on the top of each post. Rachel touched one of the posts gently and admired the ornate gate and decorations on the house.

She had already started walking towards the house before se consciously decided to. Her legs moved on their own, as if she meant to go there the whole time. Rachel was shocked at herself when she boldly entered without permission, but she realized she wasn't actually moving of her own accord.

"Wait, wha?..." she said, stunned as she kicked off her shoes and headed further into the house, unable to stop herself. She walked through open sliding paper doors to find a beautiful dark-haired woman lounging on a low couch. The couch had another crescent moon decorating it.

"Welcome," the woman said in Japanese. Her voice was rich and alluring and, truthfully, not what Rachel had expected. The woman was smoking from a slender, elegant-looking pipe, and the tendrils of smoke coming from the end of the pipe and the woman's lips hung hauntingly in the air. Rachel had never been one to approve of smoking, considering what it did to one's lungs.

Before she could summon a clumsy Japanese "Hello", the woman astonishingly began speaking in English.

"I am sorry my smoking bothers you. I understand you have come here to make a request."

Rachel took a step back in surprise and blushed as she realized she must have made some kind of face suggesting that she didn't like the smoke. "I-I'm sorry. I don't really know why I barged in here like this. I'll leave now," she stammered, turning to leave before she could embarrass herself further.

"There is no such thing as coincidence in this world," the woman replied calmly. "The only thing is hitsuzen."

Rachel stopped and turned back to face the mysterious lady. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her. "What's hitsuzen?" she asked, then mentally smacked herself in the forehead for being so blunt.

"It's like fate," the woman answered, "or destiny. It means that any other outcomes are impossible. That everything that happens, happens for a reason."

"What does that have to do with me?"

The woman took another draw from her pipe and exhaled it. "You came to ask me a question. And not about finding your way back to Cross Private School. If it was not hitsuzen that you would find me then it would not have happened."

Rachel blushed as she realized she had completely forgotten that she had been lost a few moments ago. But the moment of embarrassment was fleeting as it was replaced with uneasy mistrust. How exactly did this stranger know where she had come from?

Guardedly, Rachel asked, "What is this place?"

"A shop," the woman said as the smoke from her pipe wafted about the room. "A shop where wishes are granted. And you have a very heavy wish burdening you. To grant it will cost you very dearly."

"I don't have any mo-"

"I do not charge money. For this I would charge much more from you. Equal payment for equal services required. Otherwise there is a burden that is placed on the granter as well as the receiver of the wish."

Rachel was dumbstruck at the mysteriousness of the smoking woman. Not only did she not know what on earth the woman was talking about, she also didn't know what the lady was expecting of her. She didn't know what to say, but it became clear that she was slightly disturbed by their conversation.

"Who are you?"

The woman smiled and let the silence hang in the air for a little longer before answering. "I am called by many names. Names have power. A person can know many things by knowing someone's name. You may call me Yûko. (Of course, that is an assumed name.)"

Yûko grinned mischieviously at Rachel as she said that, then she turned her attention to another sliding door and said in Japanese, "Watanuki! Go make us some lunch! Fin sake and…"

The rest of her order was too fast for Rachel to understand, and the angry reply of a teenage boy's voice startled her. The boy sounded just older than her. She didn't think that there would be anyone her age here. Rachel heard Watanuki mutter something about "in her clutches".

Yûko shot an annoyed look in the direction of the paper door before turning her attention back to her customer. Rachel was oddly comforted by the fact that someone close to her own age was here and she wasn't alone with this apparently crazy woman.

"Your name?"

"Huh?" Rachel blushed as she realized she must have been lost in her thoughts.

"What is your name?"

"Rachel."

"Rachel, huh? Where you are going it's not going to matter for a while, but after that it's perfect."

"And where exactly am I going?" Rachel was growing tired with this crazy lady's riddles.

Yûko took another puff of her pipe before answering, "What is it that you wish?"

"Yûko-san, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what I can ask of you that you can possibly grant for me. I don't have much to pay you with, even if you did accept money. I don't know what you expect of me."

Rachel stared at Yûko as the woman took another puff from her pipe. The smoke from it was beginning to irritate Rachel and she coughed quietly, breaking the moment of silence. Yûko put down her pipe and stood. She was a rather tall woman and her long, black hair draped loosely around her. The rings of smoke surrounding her seemed to follow her as she approached Rachel. Long, slender fingers slid under Rachel's chin and gently forced her to look into Yûko's eyes.

"What I expect of you does not matter. Only what you expect of yourself. You came to Japan seeking travel and new things to surround you. You came looking for something new because you don't know what you want. You think that experiencing things that are different will make you happy, but there is only you. Outside forces do not matter. You must decide for yourself what you want and what will make you happy. Not because it's what your parents want, not because change would be good for you, but because it is what _you_ want. Only you can decide what makes you happy."

Yûko guided Rachel to the couch and sat her down, holding her shoulders as she stood over her. Rachel stared in bewilderment at her as she tried to process what she had just been told. How did Yûko know so much about her? And to lay it all out at once like that?

"You must decide what is best for you. It may be upsetting to those who care about you, and you may lose those whom you considered close, but it will be what is best for you."

Yûko sat herself down and picked up her pipe again. Rachel concentrated on her hands in her lap, desperately trying to make sense of what that woman wanted her to do. Yûko said that only she could decide what was best for herself and that outside forces didn't matter. But what did that mean?

"In the meantime, you should eat something. One shouldn't think on an empty stomach," said Yûko, just as Watanuki was coming back into the room with two bento boxes and a big bottle of what looked like sake.

"You didn't have any sea breem or fin," he told Yûko, clearly irritated.

"No matter. Thank you, Watanuki."

Watanuki took a long look at Rachel, who was too distracted to notice, before he went back to the kitchen.

"Maru, Moro," Yûko called, "go get that thing and bring it out when I tell you to."

Two little girls' voices responded in unison from behind the paper door. "Okay!"

Rachel stared at the bento box, still bent in thought, and mechanically picked it up. She began eating it without really tasting the food, a million thoughts still buzzing in her head. The food was very good and she found that Yûko was right: it did help to have food in your stomach when thinking.

Close to a half an hour passed with no sound but chewing and Yûko's long exhalations of smoke. Rachel finished her bento box and looked at Yûko, wondering if she should say something. Yûko, however, was the first to break the silence.

"Rachel. Have you decided what you want?"

In reality, Rachel knew exactly what she wanted, now that Yûko had helped her clear her thoughts. The problem was, she couldn't dare ask for it.

"I don't think it's something you can actually grant—this particular wish," she began.

Yûko stayed silent—expectant. It was at that moment that Rachel realized something. Sometimes, when someone offers you something, they actually _can_ give it to you. Maybe all that's needed is for you to take that chance. And, sometimes it's good to at least just _tell_ someone about what you want.

"I want," Rachel paused, not sure if she could say it, then continued in a rush, "Maybe it's not that I want my surroundings to change, but myself. I want to be more exciting and interesting. Something other than the norm. I'm restless with myself and I'm dying for change."

"Is that what you wish then?" Yûko asked. "To be different?"

Rachel took a deep breath, putting as much resolve into her bearing as she could. Then she looked Yûko directly in the eye.

"Yes."


	2. First Transformation

The tendrils of smoke in the room seemed to curl and expand with Rachel's anticipation. Yûko stood from the low couch and looked down at Rachel.

"To grant you your wish would require much, perhaps more than you alone can afford. You will be forced to travel many different worlds. But you must remember that a friend that you meet in one will not always be a friend in the next. Your payment will extract something very dear to you. What are you willing to sacrifice for this?"

Rachel looked expectantly at Yûko, not knowing what the heck she was saying. She knew her face was completely confused. _Different worlds?_ As in other dimensions, maybe? It sounded suspiciously sci-fi to her.

She focused on the question Yûko asked her. Resolve bubbled in the pit of her stomach—she knew exactly what she wanted now, and she knew that she would pay whatever price necessary to achieve her goal. "What sacrifices do I need to make?"

Yûko spoke again. "You have enjoyed your freedom to do what you like here, have you not? If I grant your wish, you will not be allowed to make any of your desired transformations without first helping those who will transform you.

"Each world you visit, there will be those who help you change into something more 'interesting.' But they will first need your assistance to accomplish what they must do. The first one will be simple, but the second will require much more of you."

Rachel could feel the blank, what-in-the-heck-are-you-talking-about face start to come over her again. She decided it would probably be a popular face with her the more she stayed around Yûko. But, she considered what the woman had proposed. Transformations in exchange for her time consumed by others. It seemed a fair enough exchange to her.

"How will I know who to help?" Rachel asked.

"You will know because they will be the first to discover you," Yûko replied bluntly.

_Discover me?_ Rachel thought. _What, am I gonna be in hiding or something? _She looked at Yûko and decided to trust her with this one. "What kind of transformations am I going to make?" she asked carefully.

"The change will vary with the place. Though the first is my treat."

Rachel looked puzzled. Before, Yûko said that the first one would be simple, not that it would be "her treat." What exactly was Yûko planning?

"Maru! Moro!" she called out in the direction of the paper door. "You can bring it now."

Two strange looking girls in cute dresses walked into the room, both holding a small, equally cute, red purse. They walked to Yûko, moving like they were twins, and offered it to her simultaneously. Then Yûko looked at Rachel. "We're going for a walk."

"A walk! A walk!" The Twins (Rachel decided to call them that even though they didn't look alike) jumped up and down and started to crowd adoringly around Yûko. Yûko looked pleased and guided Rachel to the door.

Rachel looked skeptically at Yûko. It occurred to her that she could be wasting her time with this woman. All the talk about other worlds and such was enough to make a normal person get up and leave, calling all that kind of talk "B.S." Too bad the crazy woman had offered Rachel something too good to pass up.

"We'll be taking the Aurora path," Yûko smiled to Rachel. She opened the door and revealed what looked to Rachel like a portal.

Totally shocked, Rachel fell back and said in a bit too high of a voice, "What the heck is that?!"

Still smiling, Yûko grabbed Rachel's wrist and pulled her through the shimmering hole. All of a sudden, the two were standing on a sidewalk in front of a little Japanese building. A sign at the top of the porch read (as far as Rachel could tell) "Koshiba Beauty Salon".

Rachel was still slightly freaked out. "What in the hell just happened?! How on earth…" Rachel fell silent and waited for Yûko to respond.

But that insane woman just smiled. "Come on. This will be your first transformation."

Rachel shakily decided to calm down and ignore the fact that they had seemingly just _teleported!_ somewhere. "I'm getting a makeover?" her voice was completely disbelieving.

Yûko grabbed her wrist again and started hauling her over to the building. "Yes. You're nappy hair is driving me insane."

Rachel was a little offended at that. _Well you didn't exactly need my help around the bend, sister,_ she retorted silently. She liked her hair. She liked that it was disheveled. She thought it made a statement along the lines of, "I don't care what people think of me. So put _that_ in your juice pouch and suck it!"

She was dragged up the step to the front porch and then through the doors of the salon. "This is part of your payment to me," Yûko explained mischievously. "It's also my payment for some great service yesterday."

Rachel looked around at the small salon and spotted a young woman in a baseball cap cutting the hair of a single mannequin head. Her hands were moving incredibly fast. She paused in awe as the woman's hands became so fast that Rachel almost couldn't see the cuts she was making. In a couple of seconds, the head was transformed into a very cute hairstyle and the stylist put down her scissors. From what Rachel could see, the scissors glinted with a golden tint.

Then the stylist turned to face them. She was tall, though not as tall as Yûko, and with light hair swept back in a casual ponytail underneath her cap. She looked utterly calm and slightly indifferent. She said something in Japanese to Yûko that sounded like an acknowledgement and then gestured to Rachel to sit down.

Rachel did so and asked Yûko, "What's going on?"

The stylist, whom Rachel couldn't understand very well, started talking to her. Rachel looked helplessly at Yûko. The bilingual woman began to translate between them.

"She said that you have nappy hair and that you should really take better care of it. A lot of split ends, she says. But she complimented on your pretty red color. She says it's not a carrot top but that it has some brown and blond in it along with the red, giving it good dimension."

"Arigato," Rachel managed to say in clumsy Japanese. "Tell her that I have no idea what the hell I'm doing here because I did not actually want anything done with my hair."

Surprisingly, Yûko willingly started to translate. But it seemed that the Japanese version of Rachel's statement was a lot longer than the English version. The woman looked at Rachel and smiled warmly, saying something and then covering her with a salon apron.

Rachel squirmed uncomfortably, wondering why the woman was going to continue with the unwanted cut. She glared at Yûko. "What did she say? What did you tell her?"

Yûko grinned mischievously and said simply, "I told her you needed the cut because you'll be going through a change soon. She said that she would work some magic on you."

"You told her that?!" Rachel exclaimed. Then she thought, _Oh great, we have another mysterious magic user?_ As Rachel sat in the salon chair, though, she realized that the magic that this stylist was using was in her hands.

A look of complete serenity passed over the woman's face as she began to comb through Rachel's tangled mess of hair. The comb didn't jerk through the knots harshly like whenever Rachel combed her own hair, but it worked to gently smooth them out. The woman finished untangling it rather quickly and then immediately picked up her scissors.

Then, in a surprisingly decent American accent, the stylist began speaking in English to Rachel as she cut her hair. "Where are you from? I noticed your accent. And I know what you said earlier about not wanting your hair done."

Rachel looked at her, flabbergasted. "I-I'm from California."

"I also lived there. With my parents in L.A. What city are you from?"

"Chino Hills…"

"Oh, I never went there. I stayed close to Hollywood and cut hair there for a short time."

"Wow, a Hollywood stylist," Rachel was actually impressed. "So, you understood me the whole time?"

"Yes," the woman replied simply. "And it seems that if Yûko-san is bringing you here, then it is important." She moved to the other side of Rachel's head and continued cutting.

Her customer stayed quiet as she considered her stylist's words. _So she knows Yûko, too, _Rachel thought. Then she held very still as the woman's hands began to fly around her head, twisting and flipping her hair around and moving at an incredible speed. The gold scissors she cut with glinted and blurred with Rachel's fiery red. _Fiery? I've never seen my hair as fiery before. It's always just been red._

But as Rachel saw through the mirror, her hair really did look like it was on fire. After being combed out, it was slightly shinier, not as dull and matted. The cut was looking amazing, too. The whole thing seemed more alive and buoyant.

The woman made a few more clips and then pulled away, setting her scissors down. The finished result was something that Rachel had a hard time looking away from. Before, Rachel's hair had been long, matted, and surprisingly uninteresting for the color. Now it was light and had plenty of motion, which allowed for her natural curls to show a little in the ends. It also wasn't that much shorter than it had been, for which Rachel was relieved.

"Wow," Rachel said, running her fingers through the untangled locks. "It really looks great. Thank you."

The woman smiled and then left the room with a certain air of indifference, just like she had before the cut. Rachel turned to Yûko and the woman smiled at her.

"Your first transformation is complete."

Rachel got up from the chair and walked over to Yûko, who had been sitting in a salon chair that was a couple seats down from where she had been. She smiled down at her and placed her hands on her hips.

"Then let's bring on Round 2."


	3. Saying Goodbye

Rachel and Yûko walked in silence away from the Koshiba Beauty Salon. The teenager couldn't keep her hands off her hair; she pulled her fingers through it and admired the now more vibrant strands. She had never realized what a difference one small change could make. Confidence crept up inside her and she stood a little taller now. _Wait a minute, _she thought,_ since when did hair become so important to me?_

Sheepishly, she looked up at Yûko, hoping the woman didn't notice her accidental moment of girly-ness. It had never been a moment she'd had problems with before.

"You should embrace your feelings, not be ashamed of them."

_Great._ Rachel mentally smacked herself. _ Guess she did._

The two continued down the street in silence again, passing small Japanese fruit stands and other knick-knack stores. Rachel found her eyes wandering. She perused the stands from a distance and glanced at the people around her. There seemed to be a lot of people looking at the two of them. Rachel would often accidentally meet someone's gaze and quickly look away, only to find that another person was looking their way.

The girl looked up at Yûko. The dark-haired woman was definitely beautiful; she let off a strong sense of presence that was difficult not to admire. But then again, Rachel had always admired strength. And, of course, people were probably staring at this crazy lady's traditional Japanese gown, which was showing quite a lot of cleavage for a cold day.

Rachel looked down at her own clothes. Dark skinny jeans with a gray printed t-shirt and the heavy black jacket that her mom had gotten her for the trip. And, of course, her ever-present beat-up leather Converse. With the headphones of her iPod in and head down, Rachel assumed she looked like any other normal teenager—a fact she hadn't realized bothered her before. Standing next to Yûko in all her crazy-lady glory had actually snapped a few things into perspective for her.

What _did_ she want anyways? To be beautiful, like Yûko? Well sure, but who wouldn't? She had always wanted uniqueness, something she had strived for in her art, her writing, even her previously matted hair. Everything was a statement to Rachel—everything a person did defined them.

And then there were the less practical wishes; there were her childhood dreams that still haunted her with their presence. But who could really ask to fly? Rachel should've given up that dream a long time ago. But deep down, she knew she couldn't. Even now, at sixteen, her heart raced with the thought of the wind in her face and wings. But that was silly to dream of. If woman was meant to fly, she would already have wings.

But what could Yûko or another world possibly do for those wishes? Even with her new haircut and if she put on some cleaner clothes, she could never match someone like Yûko. That kind of beauty came naturally. And Rachel immediately put out the thought of flight from her mind. She wouldn't even dare to dream of that. Instead she looked back up at the dark-haired woman.

"I can't understand most of what you are doing or why you are doing it, but I want to believe you. I think that you can do what you say you can and that maybe you're sending me to other worlds just for the hell of it. But I don't think that any other world can grant me the changes I want. This one certainly can't. I just don't want you to be wasting your time with me."

Rachel dropped her gaze then and stared at her shoes, waiting for the Yûko to tell her that she probably was wasting her time and that she was going to drop her off back at her school and tell her to forget the entire thing.

Even though she was expecting it, her heart still sunk in her chest when she saw the gates to Cross Private School. Yûko took her all the way up to her dorm room without a word. She opened the door (which Rachel could have sworn she locked) and entered. Rachel halfheartedly protested.

"Hey, um, what are you doing going into my room like that? You could have just left me at the gate. There's no need to tr-"

Yûko had dug around Rachel's things and found her laptop, then turned and handed it to her. "You will be gone for a very long time from this world. You need to write an e-mail to your parents explaining that you will not be coming back home any time soon. Think of a good excuse. I will help you."

Rachel couldn't hide the joy that suddenly surged in her when the laptop was in her hands. She was saying goodbyes. That meant she was going somewhere. Maybe her dreams couldn't be given to her, but at least she got the chance to try. With Yûko's help, she started typing.

**Mom, Dad, Melanie, and Mario,**

**You guys sent me here to learn Japanese and to immerse myself in the culture. You wanted me to discover how great it was to travel and accomplish the things that I wanted to do.**

**Well, now I have an opportunity to do more of just that. I have an opportunity to make all of my dreams come true, but it requires more of my time. A lot more of my time. It might seem crazy, and I don't know if I'll be wasting my time or not, but I can't pass this up.**

**You guys taught me to follow my dreams and do what I had to do to make them happen. I'm going to do that now, but I know that I won't be able to see you for a long while. I might come back different, I may seem to get a little older, I may get hurt—but I'll always have you in my heart and in my mind. I'll never really be too far away.**

**And when you start to miss me, know that I love you and that I will come back. That is my promise to all of you.**

**Thank you for showing me a way into my dreams. I love you Mom, Dad, Melanie, Mario. And when I come back, I'll bring souvenirs!**

**Your daughter and your sister,**

**Rachel**


End file.
